COMPANIES COMPANIES Toray invests in additional carbon production capacity Toray Industries is expanding its production capacity of Torayca PAN-based carbon fibre, adding a new carbonization facility to its Ehime Plant (Japan). The facility will be devoted to special thin carbon fibres for industrial use with an annual production capacity of 1,000 tonnes, and is scheduled to begin operation in July 2009. The company’s recently adopted capacity expansion plan involves a total investment of approximately ¥16 billion, including funds for the addition of a PAN precursor production facility and a carbon-fibre carbonization facility, not to mention plant-site preparation. The planned capacity expansion will increase the Ehime Plant’s annual carbon-fibre production capacity from 7,300 to 8,300 tonnes, with the Toray Group’s total annual production capacity rising from 14,300 to 18,900 tonnes. The 2007 worldwide demand for PAN-based carbon fibres is estimated at about 35,000 tonnes, and this demand is expected to expand at an annual rate of 15% or more in the years ahead, reaching almost 53,000 tonnes per year in 2010. While aiming at becoming a highly profitable company under its medium-term business objective “Project Innovation Toray” (IT-2010), Toray is making proactive investments to increase its production of carbon-fibre composite materials, one of its strategically expanding businesses. In addition to expanding the group’s carbon fibre production capacity to 25,000 tonnes a year by the end of 2010, the company will promote and strengthen the deployment of a vertically-integrated business structure covering carbon fibres, prepregs and composites. Toray, as the world’s number-one manufacturer of carbon-fibre composite materials, will strive to expand its business to achieve its goals for 2010, i.e. a 38% share of the global market in terms of sales (34% in 2007) and ¥170 billion in consolidated sales. www.toray.com Nippon Graphite Fiber increases production capacity Nippon Graphite Fiber Corporation, one of the world’s leading manufacturers of pitchbased carbon fibres, is increasing its production capacity at their main plant in Himeji, Japan. This increase will lead to a new total capacity of 180 t/year. Sold under the brand name Granoc, the NGF fibres are used in a wide variety of applications, ranging from satellite components and industrial rollers for the paper and printing industries, to sports goods such as golf clubs, fishing rods and bicycles. The industrial roller business is one of the fastest growing sectors, with the use of fibres in rollers leading to significant weight savings compared to steel and aluminium, and thus notable energy savings. www.ngfworld.com CPIC has been in glass fibre production in China since 1970 and was the first manufacturer to produce E-glass fibre by the direct-melt process in China, in 1986. Today, CPIC is China’s leading E-glass and ECR-glass manufacturer. AFG is part of Saleh & Abdulaziz Abahsain Co Ltd, established in 1947. AFG started the construction of an ECR glass fibre factory in Bahrain in 2007 as part of a joint venture with Glass Strand Inc, a leading ECR technology provider from the USA. The first furnace, with an annual capacity of 30,000 tonnes, will be fully operational in summer 2008. The joint venture will build a second 30,000 tonne furnace in 2008 and will reach a capacity of 120,000 tonnes by 2010, growing to 200,000 tonnes in 2012. kverdegaal@abahsain.com World’s largest ECR glass fibre plant Construction of the world’s largest ECR glass fibre manufacturing plant was launched in the last week of February. The $180 million plant owned by Eastern Petrochemicals Company is being built in Jubail Industrial City in Saudi Arabia. The technology, engineering, design, and key equipment are being provided by Fiberex Technologies Inc., a unit of Fiberex Glass Corporation. Once completed in December 2009, Fiberex will offer a substantial additional capacity. www.fiberex.com producer in Bahrain, have signed a memorandum of understanding for a joint venture to produce 200,000 tons of glass fibre per year in Bahrain. CPIC and Abahsain set up glass fibre joint venture Chongqing Polycomb International Corp (CPIC) and Abahsain Fibreglass M.E. (AFG), an ECR glass fibre JEC Composites Magazine / No40 May 2008

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